Components of the interface

- [Instructor] Moving around the screen, we find AutoCAD for Mac is laid out using three main component types: the Menu bar across the top of the screen, Pallets, and the Drawing Window itself. Then Menu bar is fairly ubiquitous as it is in any application running Mac OS. The apple in the upper left corner is ever present and doesn't change much. Next, we find the Application menu. Also, fairly unchanging, except for the Application name itself. Here, we find information about AutoCAD for Mac, as well as our Preferences menu, and where we would go to quit the application itself. Moving left to right, you find fairly standard Menu items, File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Draw, Dimension, Modify, Window, and finally, the System Help menu. These straight forward enough, and to navigate them you must ask yourself simply, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you looking for a tool to create or draw an arc? Well, that would be found under Draw, under Arc. Are you looking to dimension that arc? Well, look under Dimension, of course. Next, spread around the perimeter of the screen, we see Pallets. These are docked windows that hold buttons, lists, and drop downs. Most of these are pretty standard, and the default arrangement when you install the application includes the Properties and Specter pallet, the Status bar, Layout tabs, the Tool Sets pallet, the Toolbar, and the Drawing tabs, and finally, the Command Line. For those not familiar, the Command Line is fairly unique to AutoCAD, and what many AutoCAD users have come to rely on. It's sort of like a Dos Command prompt, or a terminal window for entering in your commands, though far less cryptic than either of those tools. It is also the means by which AutoCAD tries to communicate with you. If you read the command prompt when entering commands, you will never be confused as to what AutoCAD is asking for, whether an object, a point, or a yes or no response. Center stage of your screen, you should see the Drawing Window. This is where you will actually be creating our geometry and working with it. The subjects of paper space and model space will be discussed in a later video, but suffice to say, this is the largest drafting table you have ever had access to. Capable of displaying objects as small as a paperclip, and much, much smaller to the layout of an entire city, and even larger still. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the interface, as it will be a large part of your work with AutoCAD for Mac.